For a Brummie like me, Ozzy Osbourne's voice mattered
I'm talking about the 1970s here, when there were fewer radio or television interviews, and very little in the way of what came to be known as reality shows. Even when the 70s turned into the 80s and I was old enough to go to concerts, the spoken words of British frontmen and women, when they found something to say between songs, sounded at best neutral and at worst mid-Atlantic. Over the years, with all the touring or living in the States, their original English accents could even desert them completely.
I never saw Black Sabbath live, but I suspect Ozzy Osbourne, even as he addressed the crowd through a mouthful of bat's head in Iowa, sounded as Brummie as could be. From the beginning to the end, while speaking if not singing, he talked like a bloke from Birmingham should talk. You could take the man out of Aston, but this man's accent never left the place. For me, this was always important, even though Ozzy's accent made mine sound as posh as a minor royal's.
If you get chance, have a look at Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm, a film about the studio in Monmouthshire. Fifty years after Black Sabbath first went there, you'll hear Ozzy talking about it in the same accent he'd have had back then. 'We'd never been in a studio; we'd never been on a farm. So everything was new. You'd come and see a cow in a field, you know. We were from the streets of Aston – the only thing we ever saw was a police horse. It was brilliant.'
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Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Ozzy Osbourne returns to the charts as Kelly uses their duet for heartbreaking tribute
Prince of Darkness and forefather of heavy metal Ozzy Osbourne died this week aged 76 –just three weeks after his final performance with his band Black Sabbath Music by Ozzy Osbourne and his band Black Sabbath has surged back into the charts following the legendary rock star's death earlier this week. Their signature tune Paranoid - which reached number four when it was first released back in 1970 – has returned to the Top 40 for the first time in nearly 45 years, the Official Charts Company said. Now at number 32, it's one of six Black Sabbath and Ozzy releases inside this week's wider top 200. Black Sabbath's The Ultimate Collection had a massive return to album chart, climbing 129 places to number 22. Ozzy Osbourne 'knew it was over' at final gig - Sharon Osbourne's final act of love kept him alive How to watch The Osbournes as beloved reality show is available to stream again on this channel Sabbath's 1970 album Paranoid is currently at number 52, Ozzy's 2014 hits collection Memoirs Of A Madman is at 60. His Prince Of Darkness album is at 71. While Sabbath's Mob Rules is at number 107. Ozzy died on Tuesday, July 22, aged 76, "surrounded by love" less than three weeks after his farewell concert with Black Sabbath. A joint statement from his beloved wife of 43 years, Sharon Osbourne, and four of his children shared more details. The late musician was dad to his three kids with Sharon – Aimee, 41, Kelly, 40, and 39-year-old Jack - plus his older kids Elliot, Jessica and Louis from his marriage to first wife Thelma Riley. Louis was also named in the family's statement. It said: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis." Two days after his death, daughter Kelly shared lyrics from the Black Sabbath song 'Changes,' which she duetted on with her famous dad in 2003. Though Black Sabbath originally released the song in 1972. The song was a No. 1 hit in the UK, and they became just the second father-daughter pair to ever top the charts, after Frank and Nancy Sinatra in 1967. Taking to Instagram to give a heartbreaking update, she wrote "I feel unhappy I am so sad. I lost the best friend I ever had." Heartbroken fans have since been leaving tributes outside Ozzy's Buckinghamshire home, with flowers and loving message laid outside the gates. Half-drunk pints and bottles of beer have also been left alongside candles as mourners toast the rock icon on Birmingham's Black Sabbath bridge. Sharing what Ozzy's last moments were like, a source told People: "Ozzy's final days were spent in England, surrounded by family, music and in the place he called home. He was in peace."
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Singer Cleo Laine, regarded as Britain's greatest jazz voice, dies at 97
Cleo Laine, whose husky contralto was one of the most distinctive voices in jazz and who was regarded by many as Britain 's greatest contribution to the quintessentially American music, has died. She was 97. The Stables, a charity and venue Laine founded with her late jazz musician husband John Dankworth, said Friday it was 'greatly saddened' by the news that 'one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away." Monica Ferguson, artistic director of The Stables, said Laine "will be greatly missed, but her unique talent will always be remembered.' Laine's career spanned the Atlantic and crossed genres: She sang the songs of Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg and Robert Schumann; she acted on stage and on film, and even played God in a production of Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde." Laine's life and art were intimately bound up with band leader Dankworth, who gave her a job and her stage name in 1951, and married her seven years later. Both were still performing after their 80th birthdays. Dankworth died in 2010 at 82. In 1997, Laine became the first British jazz artist to be made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight. "It is British jazz that should have received the accolade for its service to me," she said when the honor was announced. "It has given me a wonderful life, a successful career and an opportunity to travel the globe doing what I love to do." Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in 1927. Her father, Alexander Campbell, was a Jamaican who loved opera and earned money during the Depression as a street singer. Despite hard times, her British mother, Minnie, made sure that her daughter had piano, voice and dance lessons. She began performing at local events at age 3, and at age 12 she got a role as a movie extra in "The Thief of Bagdad." Leaving school at 14, Laine went to work as a hairdresser and faced repeated rejection in her efforts to get a job as a singer. A decade later, in 1951, she tried out for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, and succeeded. "Clementina Campbell" was judged too long for a marquee, so she became Cleo Laine. "John said that when he heard me, I didn't sound like anyone else who was singing at the time," Laine once said. "I guess the reason I didn't get the other jobs is that they were looking for a singer who did sound like somebody else." Laine had a remarkable range, from tenor to contralto, and a sound often described as "smoky." Dankworth, in an interview with the Irish Independent, recalled Laine's audition. "They were all sitting there with stony faces, so I asked the Scottish trumpet player Jimmy Deuchar, who was looking very glum and was the hardest nut of all, whether he thought she had something. 'Something?' he said, 'She's got everything!'" Offered 6 pounds a week, Laine demanded — and got — 7 pounds. "They used to call me 'Scruff', although I don't think I was scruffy. It was just that having come from the sticks, I didn't know how to put things together as well as the other singers of the day," she told the Irish Independent. "And anyway, I didn't have the money, because they weren't paying me enough." Recognition came swiftly. Laine was runner-up in Melody Maker's "girl singer" category in 1952, and topped the list in 1956 and 1957. She married Dankworth — and quit his band — in 1958, a year after her divorce from her first husband, George Langridge. As Dankworth's band prospered, Laine began to feel underused. "I thought, no, I'm not going to just sit on the band and be a singer of songs every now and again when he fancied it. So it was then that I decided I wasn't going to stay with the band and I was going to go off and try to do something solo-wise," she said in a BBC documentary. "When I said I was leaving, he said, 'Will you marry me?' That was a good ploy, wasn't it, huh?" They were married on March 18, 1958. A son, Alec, was born in 1960, and daughter Jacqueline followed in 1963. Despite her happy marriage, Laine forged a career independent of Dankworth. "Whenever anybody starts putting a label on me, I say, 'Oh, no you don't,' and I go and do something different," Laine told The Associated Press in 1985 when she was appearing on stage in New York in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Her stage career began in 1958 when she was invited to join the cast of a West Indian play, "Flesh to a Tiger," at the Royal Court Theatre, and was surprised to find herself in the lead role. She won a Moscow Arts Theatre Award for her performance. "Valmouth" followed in 1959, "The Seven Deadly Sins" in 1961, "The Trojan Women" in 1966 and "Hedda Gabler" in 1970. The role of Julie in Jerome Kern's "Show Boat" in 1971 provided Laine with a show-stopping song, "Bill." Laine began winning a following in the United States in 1972 with a concert at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. It wasn't well-attended, but The New York Times gave her a glowing review. The following year, she and Dankworth drew a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall, launching a series of popular appearances. "Cleo at Carnegie" won a Grammy award in 1986, the same year she was a Tony nominee for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." A reviewer for Variety in 2002 found her voice going strong: "a dark, creamy voice, remarkable range and control from bottomless contralto to a sweet clear soprano. Her perfect pitch and phrasing is always framed with musical imagination and good taste." Perhaps Laine's most difficult performance of all was on Feb. 6, 2010, at a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the concert venue she and Dankworth had founded at their home, during which Laine and both of her children performed. "I'm terribly sorry that Sir John can't be here today," Laine told the crowd at the end of the show. 'But earlier on my husband died in hospital.' Laine said in an interview with the Boston Globe in 2003 that the secret of her longevity was that "I was never a complete belter." "There was always a protective side in me, and an inner voice always said, 'Don't do that — it's not good for you and your voice.'" Laine is survived by her son and daughter. ___ Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed. AP journalist Robert Barr, the principal writer of the obituary, died in 2018.
Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
BBC Radio 2 announces huge schedule shake-up as Ozzy Osbourne honoured
BBC Radio 2 has made a huge change in honour of Ozzy Osbourne and listeners can tune in on Friday night from 11pm to hear the stations tribute to the Black Sabbath rocker BBC Radio 2 has made a huge change in honour of Ozzy Osbourne. The Black Sabbath rocker died earlier this week at the age of 76 after battling numerous health issues and now the flagship radio station has decided that Shaun Keaveny's Radio 2 Rock Show on Friday at 11pm will be entirely devoted to the Prince of Darkness himself. Some of the icon's best known work includes Paranoid, Iron Man and Changes, and the programme will spend its night time slot looking back at some of those classics. What's more, the special will also take a look at Ozzy's solo career, which, after years of success with Black Sabbath, began in 1980 with the single Crazy Train and saw him right through to 2022, when he released what became his final album Patient Number 9. Listeners will also be able to hear Ozzy's very own choice of Rock God which he recorded for Johnnie Walker's very first Radio 2 Rock Show back in June 2018, and excerpts from interviews with the man himself chosen from the archives. Listeners can tune in from 11pm, and the show will also be made available on BBC Sounds. Ozzy died just days after he had performed his farewell gig at Villa Park in his hometown of Birmingham. News of Ozzy's death broke on Wednesday evening, and it came after a number of health woes for the legendary music star. The family statement announcing his death read: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love." We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis." The family message was preceded by a location stamp, that read: "Birmingham, England July 22, 2025" - revealing that Ozzy made it back home for one last time. He is survived by his wife Sharon and their children Jack, Aimee, Kelly as well as Jessica, Louis and Elliott from his first marriage. Taking to Instagram hours after his broadcast, BBC Radio 1 DJ Jack Saunders said of his idol's passing: "As I was on air tonight, the news broke that we had lost one of the greatest showman the world of metal and music has ever seen. The bands and artists that dare to fly the flag in the name of rock n roll do so because Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath did first. He was a blessing to music. Rest In Peace the Prince Of Darkness." Sharon responded: "Jack thank you for your tribute to Ozzy tonight, bless you." Meanwhile, Sir Elton John, a close friend of Sharon and Ozzy, also shared a moving tribute. Rocket Man hitmaker Sir Elton John shared a picture of himself and Ozzy, and wrote: "So sad to hear the news of @ozzyosbourne passing away. He was a dear friend and a huge trailblazer who secured his place in the pantheon of rock gods - a true legend. He was also one of the funniest people I've ever met. I will miss him dearly. To Sharon and the family, I send my condolences and love." An air ambulance landed close to Ozzy's Buckinghamshire mansion at around 10:30am on Tuesday, and medics spent hours attempting to revive the Black Sabbath musician. A local resident said they became alarmed after noticing the helicopter in the quiet village and saw it landing close to Ozzy and Sharon's mansion. They told the MailOnline: "All of us were talking about it and wondering what had happened. We immediately feared it may be for him as he was known to be in fragile health. When we heard later that night that he had died it confirmed our worst fears." A spokesperson for Thames Valley Air Ambulance said: "We can confirm that our helicopter was dispatched to provide advanced critical care at an incident near Chalfont St Giles yesterday." The chopper took off from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire and arrived after just 15 minutes. The red aircraft is used to treat patients requiring the most critical care. Today, Ozzy's sister told the Mirror how she was glad he was able to die in England, after he had been yearning to return home, having spent two decades in Los Angeles.
